History

It all started in 1984 when Printlab owner, Adhemar Dellagiustina Jr. was a biochemistry student at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil. While on a school break, he met Michael McCafrey - a Chicago photographer who was working on his travelogue photographs throughout South America.

From an early age, Adhemar was very involved in photography working as an assistant for small independent productions in his spare time and learning photography with his Canon A-1 and an old Zeiss Ikon, a gift from his grandfather who had used the camera in his travels through Europe in the 1950s.

Photography was the common ground between Michael and Adhemar and at the end of two weeks, Adhemar felt a career change approaching accepting Michael’s invitation to come to America where later he became a lab technician for legendary black-and-white Mather Custom Prints. There he learned advanced printing techniques, mezzotint printing, masking and contact printing among other techniques.

Three years later as Mather Custom Prints was switching from black-and-white to color processes, Adhemar decided to set up his own lab dedicated exclusively to black-and-white in order to respectfully continue Mather’s pursuit of excellence in black-and-white processes.

Starting in April of 1987 with a 1400 sq. foot loft in Chicago’s River North area with two small enlargers and a long sink, the Printlab quickly became the favorite lab of many Chicago photographers and today the Printlab has grown from its humble beginnings to become the premier integrated printing studio in Chicago from black-and-white to digital imaging.

      © 2012 Printlab